I am a senior editor at Forbes and focus mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes earn on and off the field of play. I've profiled a bunch of athletes that go by one name: LeBron, Shaq, Danica and others. I also head up our biennial B-School rankings, our list of America's Best Small Companies and our annual features on the Best Places for Business (metros, states and countries). I joined Forbes in 1998 after working 3 years at Financial World magazine.

The World's Highest-Paid Tennis Players

Novak Djokovic has steamrolled the competition on the ATP Tour in 2011. He started the year with a 43-match winning streak and has racked up 57 wins against just two losses en route to his nine tournament titles this year. His year-to-date prize money is more than the combined total of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The Serbian player known as Nole is at the top of his sport right now.

Yet when it comes to the highest-paid tennis players, Djokovic comes up short compared to competitors Roger and Rafa if you look at total earnings. The duo who were ranked Nos. 1 and 2 on the court for most of the past six years have won 26 Grand Slams combined and their dominant play over a long period of time attracted a slew of sponsors willing to shell out multimillion endorsement deals. Djokovic’s deals have yet to come.

Federer is the highest-paid tennis player in the world over the past 12-months with earnings of $47 million from prize money, endorsements, exhibitions and appearance fees. He has only one tournament title this year after averaging eight wins annually since 2003, but his income has never been higher.

Federer has long-term deals with Credit Suisse, Jura, Lindt, National Suisse, Net Jets, Rolex and Wilson. This year he renewed his agreement with Mercedes-Benz which previously was for only China. It is now a global deal which doubled the value for Federer.

He also re-upped with Gillette which is considering using Federer as part of its 2012 Olympic sponsorship program in London where Federer is a legend thanks to his six Wimbledon crowns. Federer is the only one of Gillette’s original “Champions” that had their endorsement contract renewed as the shaving giant dropped both Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry.

Federer’s biggest paycheck still comes from Nike. He re-signed with the sporting giant in 2008 for a 10-year deal that is the most lucrative endorsement package in tennis worth more than $10 million annually. In addition to his lucrative endorsement portfolio, Federer can command as much as $1 million per event for exhibitions outside the U.S.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.